Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference brought to you by Morgan Lewis

Alex Campbell

Co-Founder & CEO, Vibes Media

In 1998, at the age of 22, Alex co-founded Vibes Media with his childhood friend Jack Philbin. Since 1998, Vibes has grown into the largest and most profitable mobile marketing and technology company in the United States. Vibes is an interactive mobile marketing and technology company that uses messaging to help clients in a range of industries directly interact with their customers. The company currently employs more than 70 people and has revenues of about $12 million.

Alex is an expert in non-traditional and mobile marketing and is a frequent speaker at advertising, marketing, and technology trade shows. He has been quoted in many print publications including INC Magazine, The New York Times, and Chicago Tribune. Alex graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science. Alex has won numerous awards, including Crain’s Chicago “40 under 40,” and the Red Herring “25 Most Influential Young Technology Rebels.”

Isaac Garcia

Co-Founder & CEO, Central Desktop

As co-founder and CEO of Central Desktop, Isaac oversees business strategy and sales for the company. Isaac has a proven record in both early-stage technology companies and enterprise sales & marketing. He started his technology career in 1996 as the first sales rep at Quote Desk Software, which was later acquired by CNET Networks, Inc. in 2000. As a founding partner at Upgradebase, Isaac served as Vice President of Sales & Marketing where he oversaw all business development and sales for the company. During his 3 year tenure at CNET, Isaac served as a Director of North America Enterprise Sales for CNET Channel. As Director, he was responsible for the acquisition, sales and management of global partnerships with Microsoft, Google, EBay, Yahoo, Insight and BestBuy. Isaac led and managed CNET's global partnership with Microsoft to launch the Windows Marketplace campaign in 14 countries, the largest sales and marketing campaign ever launched by Microsoft. Isaac received a BA in English from Ambassador University and attended the University of Northern Colorado Graduate School where he studied English Literature for a Master of Arts.

Scott Rafer

Co-Founder & CEO, Lookery.com

Scott Rafer has been helping Internet publishers and users take advantage of the latest technologies and trends since 1995. As CEO of Lookery, Rafer is creating an audience-targeting service that supports helps publishers make money no matter where their users surf. Earlier, he was CEO of MyBlogLog, which was acquired by Yahoo! in early 2007. Before MyBlogLog, he twice tried and failed to build blog search companies—with Fresher Information in 1998 and with Feedster in 2003. Prior to the first dotcom boom, Rafer led the Internet products group at Kodak Hollywood, worked in investment banking, and graduated from the Management of Technology program at UPenn.

Rafer is also a member of the board of directors and co-founder of Mashery, which manages API and developer programs for web services providers, and is chairman of Winksite, which helps publishers large and small assemble active mobile communities around their brands based on the content they already syndicate.

Seth Sternberg

Co-Founder & CEO, Meebo

Seth is the co-founder and CEO of meebo.com, the web’s live communication platform. Prior, Seth attended Stanford Business School and launched meebo with Elaine Wherry and Sandy Jen after a summer internship at Warburg Pincus. Seth left Stanford to pursue meebo, which serves over 40 million people monthly. Meebo has raised $37.5M from Sequoia Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, JAFCO and Time Warner. Seth previously worked in IBM’s Corporate Development group as an M&A Lead and is a graduate of Yale University, where he majored in Political Science. Seth enjoys tennis and rollerblading and is an avid private pilot.

Fred Wilson

Partner, Union Square Ventures (Moderator)

Fred Wilson began his career in venture capital in 1987. He has focused exclusively on information technology investments for the past 17 years. From 1987 to 1996, Fred was first an Associate and then a General Partner at Euclid Partners, a New York based, early stage, venture capital firm founded in 1970. At Euclid Partners, Fred was responsible for a number of investments, including Freeloader, Multex, PowerCenter Systems and UCA&L. In 1996, Fred co-founded Flatiron Partners. While at Flatiron, Fred was responsible for 14 investments including, ITXC, Patagon, Starmedia, TheStreet.com and Yoyodyne. Fred currently serves on the boards of Alacra, Comscore, iBiquity, Return Path, Instant Information and Tacoda Systems. Fred has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Fred is married with three kids and lives in New York City.

James Balaschak

Principal, Energy & Resources, Deloitte Consulting LLP

James Balaschak is a Principal in Deloitte’s US Energy & Resources practice, having recently returned to the United States after serving as the Managing Partner for Clients & Industries and the Leader of Energy & Resources for Deloitte & Touche CIS in Moscow, Russia.

During his eleven-year tenure with Deloitte CIS in Russia, Jim also formed and led Consulting and Financial Advisory Services, servicing a host of major energy clients such as BP, TNK-BP, Gazprom, Rosneft, Lukoil and United Energy Systems, and assisting major in-bound international investors including Daimler Chrysler, Goodyear, Western Union and Visa International.

James came to Deloitte & Touche in 1998 from the position of Managing Director at Teledyne Corporation where he was responsible for all of the Company’s operations, business planning and expansion activities throughout Russia and the CIS. Jim holds an MBA from Tulsa University with a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

Steven M. Cohen

Partner and Co-manager, Emerging Business and Technology Practice, Morgan Lewis

Mr. Cohen's practice focuses on advising emerging growth companies and private equity investors throughout the mid-Atlantic region. He has represented companies and investors in venture capital financings; issuers in IPOs and secondary public offerings, acquisitions, divestitures and mergers, joint ventures, and strategic partnerships; and has provided general corporate and securities advice to publicly held corporations and limited partnerships.

Mr. Cohen is a member of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Technology Council. He is a frequent speaker on obtaining financing for emerging growth companies and planning profitable exit strategies.

Andrew Dougherty

Chief Operating Officer, Rive Technology

Andrew Dougherty is the COO at Rive Technology, a clean energy start-up, commercializing advanced catalyst technology for petroleum refining to increase the yield of transportation fuels produced per barrel of crude oil using a proprietary technology, invented at MIT. Previously, Andrew served as Manager of Corporate Development & Strategic Planning for Aspen Technology- the world’s leading engineering, manufacturing and supply chain software company focused on the energy industry. Andrew has also worked as a management consultant for Arthur Andersen. Andrew received his BA in political science from the Colorado College and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Mike Granoff

Lead investor and Head of Oil Independence Policies, Project Better Place

Mike Granoff is the first investor and the Head of Oil Independence Policies for Project Better Place. The company aims to build a profitable electric car charging infrastructure. Previously, Mike served on as a national constituency coordinator for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and implemented information strategies for his family¹s apparel manufacturing business. Mr. Granoff received his B.A. from Tufts University and his J.D. and M.B.A. Northwestern University and its Kellogg School of Management.

Dean Musser

Former President and CEO, Enerwise Global Technologies

Dean Musser was President and CEO of Enerwise Global Technologies, a former EnerTech portfolio company. Enerwise was acquired by Comverge (COMV) in 2007 for $78m at which time Dean became President and COO of Enerwise Group of Comverge. Previously, Dean was the VP of Operations and Engineering for Conectiv Solutions after selling Multi-Test Maintenance to Delmarva in 1997. Dean was the CEO of Multi-Test at the time of its sale following his successful execution of management-buyout of the business in 1995. Dean currently sits on the board of Philadelphia Renewable Energy. Dean received a BS in electrical power engineering from Drexel University.

Arrun Kapoor

Senior Associate, SJF Ventures; Co-lead of NY Chapter, Renewable Energy Business Network (Moderator)

Arrun Kapoor is Senior Associate SJF Ventures' New York City office. He is also a co-lead for the NY Chapter of the Renewable Energy Business Network (REBN) and an Advisory Board Member of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission Green Business Accelerator. Arrun was most recently with Bain & Company in London and Delhi where he initiated and led the firm's internal green practices. He worked in their Private Equity Practice and gained experience in a range of cleantech-related industries. Arrun holds a Master's in International Political Economics from the London School of Economics and completed a BA from New York University with an economics and business focus.

John Erickson

Founder & CEO, Erickson Retirement Communities

John Erickson is convinced that America needs to change how it views the aging process. With unmatched understanding and dedication to retired people, Erickson's privately held company, Erickson Retirement Communities, is the fastest-growing developer and manager of full-service, campus-style communities in the country. Erickson communities are known for their enviable lifestyle, services, and health care, all at prices that are affordable for middle-income Americans as they enter the second phase of their retirement—when access to services becomes more important than recreation.

• Erickson Advantage® has been approved by Medicare as a first-of-its-kind supplemental health insurance plan aimed at serving beneficiaries living in continuing care retirement communities under the government’s Medicare Advantage program.
• Erickson HealthSM, which is the nation's largest private health and wellness system for people over age 70, has costs that are 50% lower than what the government pays. In addition, the health system has demonstrated 50% lower acute care utilization than what the government typically experiences.

Mr. Erickson established perhaps the first health-and-wellness-oriented research institution to evolve from the U.S. retirement housing industry. Under his direction, the Erickson Foundation has invested millions in research to improve the lives of people around the world. Active aging research is one area that receives strong support. In addition, the Foundation works to develop inner city children into leaders. The Foundation’s NorthBay camp, located on the Chesapeake Bay, is a unique educational retreat with a state-of-the-art environmental education center, focused on teaching and experiencing real environmental science in the field. Serving more than12,000 students each school year in a five-day, four-night experience, the $33-million learning, living, and group activity center was designed to minimize impact on the land and enhance the existing features of the property.

In April 2004, John helped establish the Erickson School—Aging, Management and Policy, which is located at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County (UMBC). The goal of the school is to become the preeminent resource for education, research, and policy on services for the mid-life and older populations. With an explicit focus on preparing leaders for the twenty-first century within aging services, housing, and care, the Erickson School offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs, professional certificate programs, professional and executive development, as well as cutting-edge policy and applied research.

Mr. Erickson’s company is also expanding into the world of media with the credo Inform · Inspire · InvolveSM.

With Retirement Living TV, Erickson introduced its unique TV programming in October 2006. The new voice of a generation largely ignored by the television industry, Retirement Living will not only change the way you watch TV, it will change the way you perceive retired life.

The Erickson Tribune, a rapidly growing monthly newspaper, is read by more than six million people throughout the country. The Erickson Tribune and its website, www.EricksonTribune.com, combine inspiring stories, cutting-edge medical news, and in-depth coverage on topics of extreme value to readers trying to make the most out of their retirement.

Calvin H. Knowlton

Serial Entrepreneur: RevolutionCare, Tabula Rasa Strategies, ExecJetUSA

Dr. Calvin Knowlton is a serial entrepreneur of several companies. Currently, he is involved with three start-ups as:

• Founder, CEO, and Chairman of RevolutionCare, Inc., a nurse practitioner, primary care service for seniors with chronic conditions who live at home or in a nursing home facility
• Founder and CEO of Tabula Rasa Strategies, LLC., a multifaceted consulting company focused on “inspiring pharmacists to practice successfully, with meaning”
• Founder, President and Chairman of ExecJetUSA, Inc., an on-demand private air charter services in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean, and Africa for both corporate business travel and personal/family vacation travel

Prior to his current positions, he was Founder, President, and CEO of excelleRx Inc. (aka Hospice Pharmacia), a national medication management provider serving the frail elderly and employing approximately 750 people in five locations. During his eleven year tenure as CEO, excelleRx grew organically and provided services for 40% of the hospice patients in the U.S (i.e., >85,000 census), contracting with hospice programs in 49 states and Guam. After orchestrating two capital raises, one for $11 million private equity (1996) and one for $37.5 million of venture equity (2003), he grew the business to revenues of $240 million in 2007. In August 2005, he sold the company to a Fortune 500 firm for $269 million. Other businesses that he founded and later sold include Amherst Pharmacy and Health Education Center (1975-1996), ARE Home Infusion & Oxygen, Inc. (1981-1983), ARE Surgical Supply Inc. (1978-1982).

Dr. Knowlton was the Chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice / Pharmacy Administration at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science from 1995 – 1997 and taught as an Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy from 1990 – 1997. He earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacoeconomics from the University of Maryland, his M.Div. in Ethics and Education from the Princeton Theological Seminary, his BS in Pharmacy from Temple University, and his Liberal Arts degree from Rider College. In 2007, he was awarded both the VNA of Greater Philadelphia’s Person of the Year and Samaritan Hospice’s Heart of Hospice Award.

Christopher Parks

Founder & CEO, change:healthcare

Recently named by the Nashville Business Journal as one of four top healthcare innovators in Middle Tennessee, Christopher Parks serves today as CEO of change:healthcare, the company he established in 2006. His career spans more than seventeen years in healthcare, supply chain and technology sales, operations and consulting. His first position was a Program Manager for disease management firm Healthways, where he led the start-up and management of two inpatient/outpatient hospital-based chronic disease clinics. Following a successful four years there, he became a senior consultant at HealthCare Microsystems, responsible for the company’s business with HCA. Later, as Regional Director of Operations for National Seating & Mobility, he increased same store sales and total market revenues and oversaw the Kaiser southern California seating & positioning capitated agreement. His most recent position was with Global Healthcare Exchange (previously Neoforma), a billion dollar healthcare technology and services organization, where he held a series of national services and sales positions. He is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University.

Mark Stejbach

VP, Marketing & Commercial Planning, Tengion

Mark Stejbach is Vice President, Marketing and Commercial Planning for Tengion, a clinical-stage biotechnology company whose mission is to transform the lives of patients in need of an organ transplant or augmentation by developing autologous neo-organs and tissues that harness the regenerative power of the patient's own healthy tissue, enabling it to restore vital functions. The Company's lead product candidate, the Tengion Neo-Bladder Augment™, is currently in Phase II clinical trials in the United States in pediatric patients with spina bifida and adults with spinal cord injury.  Tengion's technology platform supports a broad potential product portfolio and provides the Company the opportunity to address multiple tissues and organs in the urologic, vascular, and renal systems. Mr. Stejbach joined Tengion in August 2008 from Merck & Co., where he most recently served as Vice President of Managed Care Marketing in Merck's United States Pharmaceutical Division. Mr. Stejbach started his pharmaceutical career at Merck in 1987, where he went on to lead marketing campaigns for VASOTEC and PROSCAR. From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Stejbach worked for Biogen, Inc. and was responsible for the development and execution of the launch marketing plan for the company's highly successful first marketed product, AVONEX, for multiple sclerosis. Mr. Stejbach then rejoined Merck in 1997 and over the following 11 years held numerous senior leadership positions including Senior Director roles in market development, specialty sales, marketing, and investor relations. Mr. Stejbach earned his MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BS in mathematics from Virginia Tech. He was recently named a 2008 Emerging Pharma Leader by Pharmaceutical Executive magazine.

John Whitman

Entrepreneur, Professor, The Wharton School (Moderator)

John is President of RevolutionCare, Inc and new clinical informatics, nurse practitioner, chronic care model dedicated to servicing two of the most vulnerable cohorts of our senior population: nursing home residents and the growing population of homebound seniors without a doctor. John has been the driving force behind the conceptual model for the Company. John is a graduate of The Wharton MBA Health Care Program and has been an adjunct professor there for the past eighteen years. He is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for Drexel University’s School of Public Health. John is recognized nationally as an expert on aging, long-term care and programs to serve the elderly. He started and ran his own consulting company, The Whitman Group, which grew from a one-man shop to over 95 full time employees serving 49 states across the nation. The Whitman group not only provided operational and strategic consultation to various health care organizations on a wide range of aging and elder care programs and services, but also set up and managed sub-acute nursing homes within hospitals in multiple states across the nation.

John is the founder and current the executive director of the TRECS Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to serving as a catalyst to bring about positive changes to the care of our nation’s seniors. John will devote his full attention to the creation and growth of this new venture.

John served as a special consultant to the American Hospital Association, President of The Wharton Health Care Association and the National Subacute Care Association. He was appointed a special consultant and advisor to The Japan Society, a joint United States and Japan initiative to encourage better relationships and sharing of information between the two countries related to the growing aging populations of both nations.

John was a 1993 finalist in the Ernest and Young Philadelphia Entrepreneur of the Year Award, received the coveted Wharton Graduate Teaching Excellence Award in 1996 and the Carol R Buckley Volunteer of the Year Award at Germantown Academy 2006.

John is a regular speaker at national, state and regional health care association meetings with over 350 presentations on wide area of topics, all related to the care of one of our nation’s greatest resources... our seniors.

Robert Alonso

Founder & CEO, Yaupon Therapeutics

Mr. Alonso is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive with both large multinational and early stage company experience. He is accomplished in starting and growing companies, raising capital, creating deal structures, and marketing branded pharmaceuticals.

In 2002 Mr Alonso founded Yaupon Therapeutics whose main focus is on finding novel technologies discovered in underserved academic laboratories. To date under Mr. Alonso’s leadership as CEO, Yaupon has raised over $30 million in capital and has grown to over 30 employees developing multiple clinical candidates including a late stage product that is expected to be approved in 2011.

Prior to founding Yaupon, Mr. Alonso worked for Layton BioScience, Inc a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and marketing therapies for CNS diseases. At Layton Mr. Alonso was Vice President Commercial Operations, where he was responsible for licensing, corporate development, marketing and sales. Mr. Alonso joined Layton after four plus years with Merck & Co, Inc., where he worked in the US division’s marketing and business development groups. While at Merck Mr. Alonso was responsible for evaluating new technologies and negotiating commercial agreements. Prior to his licensing activities, Mr. Alonso had commercial responsibility for Merck’s anti-infective franchise worth over $200 million in revenue. Before joining Merck, Mr. Alonso was with F. Hoffmann La Roche, LTD., where he held positions of increasing responsibility in their international marketing group in Basel, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Mr. Alonso has an MBA in international business from F.W. Olin Graduate School at Babson College and Bachelor of Science from Boston College.

Peter A. Crooks

Chief Scientific Officer, Yaupon Therapeutics

Dr. Crooks is the George A. Digenis Professor and Chair in Drug Design and Discovery at the College of Pharmacy, University of Kentucky. Dr. Crooks received his B.Sc. (1966), M.Sc. (1967) and Ph.D. (1970) from the University of Manchester, Department of Pharmacy, United Kingdom, where he served on the Faculty from 1968-1981. He also spent two years as a research associate in the Department of Pharmacology, Sterling Hall of Medicine, Yale University (1976- 1978). Dr. Crooks is a registered non-practicing pharmacist in the United Kingdom. He joined the faculty of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky in 1981. He is a member of the UK Markey Cancer Center, affiliate of the UK Sanders Brown Center for Aging, a faculty associate in the UK Center for Membrane Sciences, and holds a joint faculty appointment in the UK Graduate Center for Toxicology. During his academic career he has graduated 23 Ph.D. students and eight M.S. students, and has trained 51 post-doctoral fellows and visiting scientists in his laboratory.

Dr. Crooks is internationally known for his research work in drug discovery and development, which includes drug design and synthesis, pharmacophore development, drug biotransformation and pharmacokinetic studies, prodrug design, and medicinal plant natural product research. A major emphasis of his laboratory research focuses on drug abuse, which includes the design and discovery of neuroprotective agents of clinical utility in minimizing the neuronal damage that results as a consequence of detoxification in alcoholism; the development of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonists as novel smoking cessation agents; and the development of modulators of the vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT2) as novel treatments for psychostimulant abuse. These drug abuse projects have all been funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Crooks also has strong research programs in the design and discovery of new pain medications, new anticancer agents, and novel radiosensitization agents. He is author of over 420 peer-reviewed research articles, and numerous patents.

Dr. Crooks is a member of various professional organizations, including AAPS and ACS. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, and a Fellow and Charter Member of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. He is currently Regional Editor (USA) of the Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry, and serves on the advisory board of several other journals, including Drug Metabolism and Drug Interactions, Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Drug design Reviews-Online and AAPS PharmSciTech. Dr. Crooks has served on the following NIH Study Sections (1992-2008): Drug Development and Drug Delivery, National Cooperative Drug Discovery Groups, Cutting-Edge Basic Research Awards, and is a former member of the Office of the Extramural Program Review Committee, Contracts Review Branch of the NIH. He serves as an expert witness for the Patent Medicine Prices Review Board of the Government of Canada, and is currently a member of the Canadian Institutes of Health, Drug Development Initiative, Research Resource Grants Study Section, and CIHR Research Translation-Commercialization Program. He is past Chairman of the Drug Design and Discovery Section of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. He has founded six start-up companies in the drug discovery area over the last 10 years, including Yaupon Therapeutics, for whom he currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer; he is also a member on the Scientific Advisory Board of several other Pharmaceutical companies.

David Drahms

Investor; VP, Osage Ventures

David is Vice President of Osage Ventures, which he joined in 2005. He is involved in several venture organizations, including the MAC Alliance, Early Stage East and the 3 Rivers Venture Fair.  Prior to Osage, he worked at Teradyne, Inc., a Boston-based manufacturer of semiconductor test equipment, where he was a mechanical engineer before becoming a project manager.

David led the firm's investment in Yaupon Therapeutics, where he serves on the company's Board of Directors.  He is also a board observer of InstaMed, Melior Discovery and HardMetrics.

He is a native of Savannah, NY, and graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rochester and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Kathleen Goin

Director of Regulatory Affairs, Yaupon Therapeutics

As Director of Regulatory Affairs at Yaupon Therapeutics, Inc., Kathleen Goin manages FDA regulatory submissions for the company’s oncology and CNS products. She is currently leading the preparation of Yaupon’s NDA for Clearazide to treat Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma (CTCL). Prior to joining Yaupon in 2008, Ms. Goin managed regulatory and clinical projects at Wellpoint, Inc., Terumo Medical Corp, and DataMedix Corporation (now MedTrials). She has also developed manuscripts and presentations for submission to medical journals (JVIR and Gastroenterology) and national medical conferences such as ASCO, ASTRO and AMCP. Ms. Goin’s clinical and research experience includes: oncology, cardiology, dermatology, CNS, blood products, women’s health, diagnostic imaging, and physical rehabilitation.

Ms. Goin is a Certified Clinical Research Associate through the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) and is the incoming President of the Greater Philadelphia ACRP Chapter. She has presented numerous training sessions on clinical research topics.

Ms. Goin holds a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy, a Project Management Certificate from Villanova University and an undergraduate degree from Rosemont College. She has worked as an occupational therapist and rehabilitation manager in several healthcare practice settings. Ms. Goin has also served as an adjunct faculty member in the Graduate Occupational Therapy Program at College Misericordia.

Jennifer Hartt

Investor; Director of Investments, Life Sciences, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA (Moderator)

Jennifer Hartt is Director of Investments, Life Sciences, at Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA (BFTP). Jenn joined BFTP in late 2005 after nearly five years working in technology commercialization and equity portfolio management at the University of Pennsylvania, in Treasury and the Center for Technology Transfer, where she was Associate Director of Business Development & Equity.

BFTP was established in 1982 to stimulate economic growth through innovation, entrepreneurship and the development and adoption of new technologies. BFTP provides capital and expertise in technology, finance and business to help entrepreneurs and established businesses overcome challenges and plan for growth. Jenn directs all of the BFTP life sciences investments in those early stage companies with technologies ranging from medical devices and diagnostics to therapeutics. Earlier life sciences BFTP investments included Immunicon, Adolor and ViroPharma. Younger portfolio companies representing more recent investments include NuPathe, Protez, LumenVu and Yaupon Therapeutics. Jenn holds or has held a non-voting board observer position on many portfolio company boards, including for the 21 companies in which she has closed 28 investments since coming to BFTP.

Jenn holds a Bachelor’s, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, as well as a Master’s in Biology, both from the University of Pennsylvania. She has prior experience in lab research, business consulting, licensing and equity management. She has been active as a member in the Licensing Executive Society and as an invited conference speaker nationally and internationally, such as at Association of University Technology Managers events and at BIO -- on the subjects of financial modeling of partnerships and licensing, valuation and start-ups. Jenn is involved in regional activities in technology education and commercialization such as in being on a science curriculum audit committee, evaluating business plans such as in certain MBA courses, judging entrants in the Eastern Technology Council Enterprise Awards, mentoring students and representing her organization on the oversight committee for Coulter funding of translational research at Drexel University.

Michael Aronson

Managing Director, MentorTech Ventures

Michael Aronson is a co-founder and Managing Director of MentorTech Ventures, which specializes in seed- and early-stage investments in IT and life sciences companies connected to the University of Pennsylvania. 

Michael was previously a successful serial entrepreneur, having co-founded and played key management roles at Strategic Management Group and Reality Technologies. He also served as a Senior Lecturer in the Management department at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for more than 20 years. Michael currently serves on the Board of several companies, including The Neat Company, TicketLeap, Soft Tissue Regeneration and EyeIC. He also serves on the Board and the Investment Committee for Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Michael received a BS in Economics with Honors from Wharton.

Charles Ghoorah

Executive VP and Co-Founder, Cvent

Chuck has been with Cvent since inception and oversees the Sales and Marketing divisions, which have been growing Cvent's top-line sales more than 50 percent per year for the past five years. Chuck is a meetings industry expert and has spoken at over 100 conferences and tradeshows on event marketing and event registration. He has advised dozens of Fortune 500 organizations and large associations on strategic meeting planning and marketing. Prior to joining Cvent, Chuck was a corporate attorney with Hale and Dorr, where he specialized in venture capital financing and technology transactions. Previous to this, Chuck was an Associate Director at the Advisory Board Company (NASDAQ:ABCO) where he gave numerous presentations to hundreds of CEO's and senior executives as an Associate Director. He holds the distinction of becoming a national meeting speaker faster than anyone in that company's history. Chuck also worked as an attorney at Williams & Connolly, one of the top-rated litigation firms in the country.

Chuck’s interest in event marketing was ignited at Duke University where he was elected class president three years in a row and was also selected as Special Events Chair for the Duke University Union. In these roles, he planned major indoor and outdoor events for as many as 4,000 attendees.

Chuck graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University. He also received his MA in political science from Duke University Graduate School. He then earned his JD with honors from Duke University School of Law and served as an Articles Editor on the Duke Law Journal.

Prasad Thammineni

Co-Founder/CEO, Pixily

Prasad Thammineni is a serial entrepreneur and founder of four ventures. His latest venture, Pixily, helps professionals, home offices and small businesses go paperless and access them online anywhere, anytime.

Prior to Pixily, Prasad founded jPeople, a well-regarded, high-end consulting firm in Boston; Indolis.com, a B2B trading hub connecting enterprise, portals and Intranets; Webelong.com, a social network and Launchpad, a dockable application launcher for Windows 95 that sold 1000's of copies around the world.

Prasad has been a frequent presenter at a number of industry conferences and participated in a panel in the recent Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference. He serves as a judge in the Wharton Business Plan Competition and UPenn's Pennvention competition.

Prasad is a 2007 MBA with honors graduate from The Wharton School, with a dual major in Operations and Marketing. He won the prestigious Joseph P. Wharton Award for Leadership and Innovation. Prasad is also a graduate of the BITS, Pilani, India with dual degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science.

Prasad lives in Boston with his wife, Shivani. They enjoy living in one of the most walkable neighborhoods in the city. When he is not ruminating on his ideas, he enjoys dancing, photography, biking and making dinner.

Steve Welch

Co-Founder, DreamIt Ventures

In 2007 (at the age of 29), Steven sold the Mitos group of companies that he had started building 6 years earlier to Parker Hannifin (NYSE: PH)—an S&P 500 company. Steven founded Mitos Technologies, Inc. in 2001. At Mitos he engineered and patented the Mitos FREE FLOW® valve—the premier valve for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Under Steven's guidance Mitos developed six marketable patents all directed at improving biotech companies efficiency in manufacturing. The company developed a worldwide sales channel to promote and sell these products. Steven graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree from Penn State University. Steven has been an active Angel investor with Robin Hood Ventures and is a Founder of DreamIt Ventures, a pre-seed stage venture firm that provides  aspiring entrepreneurs with funding, services from leading law firms and accounting firms, mentoring from seasoned entrepreneurs, access to capital, and a creative, rigorous environment to bring innovative business ideas to market.  In 2008, Steve was selected as a member of the Philadelphia Business Journal’s 40 under 40 and Entrepreneur of the Year.  Steven was awarded the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship to build bridges internationally in early stage startup communities.

Mark Heesen

President, National Venture Capital Association (Moderator)

As President of the National Venture Capital Association, Mark Heesen is responsible for setting the strategic direction for all Association activities, including public policy efforts, research initiatives, educational programs, and member services.   In this capacity, Mark works closely with the NVCA professional staff and Board of Directors to demonstrate the positive impact of venture capital investment on the United States economy.  Under his direction, the NVCA has created numerous value-added sub-groups including the CFO Task Force, Strategic Communications Group, Corporate Venture Capital Group, Medical Industry Group and Human Capital forum, all of which are dedicated to supporting NVCA membership in uniquely critical areas.

As a spokesperson for the venture capital industry, Mark is often called upon by the financial media, NVCA members, limited partners, and regional associations to present the overarching venture capital perspective to a wider audience. He is a frequent presenter at industry conferences, appears regularly on CNBC, and is consistently quoted in the press in stories concerning venture capital trends.

Since 1991, Mark has worked on behalf of the NVCA to enact a wide range of policies that benefit the venture capital and entrepreneurial communities, including a significant capital gains differential, securities litigation reform, numerous SEC and FASB accounting issues, immigration reform, and a streamlining of the FDA and CMS approval processes, among other issues.

Prior to coming to the NVCA, Mark was an aide to a former Governor of Pennsylvania and was Deputy Director for Federal Funds reporting to the Texas Legislature. Mark received a law degree with an emphasis in taxation from the Dickinson School of Law in 1984.

Henri Asseily

Co-Founder & CTO, Shopzilla.com

Henri Asseily is an entrepreneur, investor and technologist who wants everyone to get their own single point of contact for life. As Telnic Ltd.'s Chief Strategist and CTO, he is launching the new Top Level Domain ".tel" to revolutionize communications in the 21st century. In a previous life during the dawn of e-commerce in 1996, he co-founded the leading shopping search engine Shopzilla, Inc. (formerly BizRate.com) and served as its CTO from inception until it was sold to E.W. Scripps in 2005. Prior to founding Shopzilla, Mr. Asseily founded and managed a real estate development fund in the Middle East. He also worked as a robotics engineer for Novafloor SA in France, and as a field supervising engineer for Krupp Polysius AG in Germany. His interests are fortunately too varied to put in a small bio paragraph. Mr Asseily holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from its Wharton School of Business. You can reach him at henri.tel.

Farhad Mohit

Founder & Chairman Emeritus, Shopzilla.com

Farhad is founder and CEO of DotSpots, a social media distribution platform that enables ordinary people (the wisdom-of-crowds) to enhance the mainstream news with high-quality user generated content. Back in 1996, at the start of his entrepreneurial career, Farhad co-founded BizRate.com, one of the world’s largest and best-known consumer feedback platforms, surveying tens of millions of buyers each year and providing store ratings and customer feedback to help hundreds of millions of online shoppers buy more confidently. In 1999, Farhad turned his attention to online comparison shopping and created Shopzilla which today is one of the largest shopping sites in the world, facilitating billions of dollars in gross merchandise sales and consistently ranked in the top 50 overall sites worldwide. In 2005, Shopzilla was acquired by E.W. Scripps for $569 million dollars.

Farhad holds an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School, and a double Bachelor of Science in Mathematics/Applied Science and Economics with a specialization in Computing from the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to his entrepreneurial activities Farhad leads an active social and philanthropic life. He is on the board of the Alliance of Civilizations Media Fund, the Iranian Scholarship Foundation, and is a trustee of The Farhang Foundation.

David Reibstein

Angel Investor & Board Member, Shopzilla.com

Dave is on the Wharton Faculty for more than two decades. He had previously taught at Harvard, and been a visiting faculty at Stanford, INSEAD, and ISB (in India). He has written six books and dozens of articles, and has been featured in Fortune and Business Weeks. He was the Vice Dean of the Wharton School, and Director of the Wharton Graduate Division. He has consulted or run management seminars in over 40 countries. In 1999-2001, he took a leave of absence from academia to serve as the executive director of the Marketing Science Institute. He was the co-founder of the first product search engine, Bizrate/Shopzilla, and was also on the founding board of And1, a basketball apparel company, as well as, on the board of XMPie, which was sold to Xerox. Additionally, he has served on numerous other boards and advisory boards.

Anand Daniel

Senior Associate, Flybridge Capital

Anand is a senior associate at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and expertise include semiconductor, telecommunication, wireless and energy-related technologies.

He currently represents Flybidge Capital Partners as an observer on the boards of CHiL Semiconducter and Sciformix.

Anand joined the firm after completing his MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management. While at Sloan, Anand was the managing director of the 9th Annual MIT VC Conference, co founder of the MIT VC Competition and an organizer of the first ever MIT Energy Conference. He led the team that won the prestigious International Venture Capital Investment Competition (1st out of 50+ teams). In addition, while at Sloan, Anand led a project with IDG Ventures India to analyze the Indian wireless value added services market.

Prior to Sloan, Anand spent several years in key engineering and project management positions at Intel Corporation. While at Intel he focused on semiconductor design and design automation for Intel's cutting-edge microprocessor products. He also worked for Intel Capital, where he helped formulate the strategy for investments in next generation high performance computing ecosystem.  

Anand has an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and a Bachelor's in Computer Science and Engineering from the Universityof Madras.

Mike Long

CFO, GIV Ventures

Mike joined GIV in 2001 as CFO, previously for many years he was CFO of Mid-Atlantic Venture Fund, a leading regional early-stage investment fund. During his 14-year venture capital career Mike has been involved with the formation of several private equity funds, as well as, several hundred portfolio transactions. In addition to his financial, accounting and administrative responsibilities Mike plays a key role in structuring and negotiating transactions, as well as, providing advisory services to portfolio companies.

Previously Mike was CFO of the founding management team of Interactive Clinical Technologies, Inc., a pharmaceutical services company. Mike began his career as a CPA and tax specialist with Peat Marwick Mitchell and holds an undergraduate degree in Accounting from Widener University.

Jim P. O'Connell

Senior Associate and Kauffman Fellow, Safeguard

As a Senior Associate and Kauffman Fellow in Safeguard's Life Sciences Group, Jim is responsible for screening deals, conducting due diligence for various acquisition opportunities and supporting Safeguard's partner companies.

Jim has eight years of operational, financial and entrepreneurial experience in the life sciences. During business school, Jim served as Summer Associate for Quaker BioVentures and Commons Capital, and also completed an internship at Liquidia Technologies in business development. Prior, he was in the Corporate Ventures/Business Development group of Becton Dickinson, a F500 medical technology firm. From 1998-2001, Jim held progressive positions in Sales, Marketing and Business Development at Chemdex, a pioneering startup that raised $450M in financing. Jim started his career in R&D at Biosite and helped developed the firm’s blockbuster BNP panel diagnosing congestive heart failure ($600+M sales to date).  

Jim received a BS in biochemistry from Virginia Tech and served as class president for four years. Jim also holds an MBA from the Wharton School, where he led the University of Pennsylvania’s $70K Business Plan Competition and received a fellowship in healthcare entrepreneurship.

Lawrence Gelburd

Independent Consultant; Lecturer, Wharton School (Moderator)

Lawrence Gelburd earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Brown University in 1977. Two years later, he joined four other entrepreneurs to form Pittsburgh-based high-tech company American Auto-Matrix (AAM). During the next ten years, the company raised over $7 million in venture capital and employed more than 80 people. AAM developed cutting-edge microprocessor-based, networkable monitoring and control systems for environmental, process, fire and security applications in commercial and industrial facilities. AAM sold systems directly to national accounts including Abbott Laboratories and Underwriters’ Laboratories (UL), and through a domestic and international dealer network. Former competitors Barber-Colman, United Technologies and Mitsui chose to sell AAM products as their own.

While with AAM, Lawrence worked as an engineer, manager, product planner, and director of national and international accounts. He traveled extensively, selling products and training customers across the U.S., Great Britain, Singapore and Japan. He was a member of the ASHRAE special project committee which created ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135-2001, BACnet — A Data Communication Protocol for Building Automation and Control Networks, now approved as International Organization for Standardization ISO 16484-5 and European Committee for Standardization CEN 16484-5. In 1989, the prestigious consulting firm Frost and Sullivan hired Lawrence as a reviewer for their report on Fuzzy Logic Computing Techniques. AAM was sold in 1989.

Lawrence received his MBA from Wharton in 1991 with a concentration in Marketing. Lawrence is an independent consultant, developing business plans and strategies for a variety of low and high tech start-ups. At Penn, Lawrence is a Lecturer, teaching Management 230: Entrepreneurship and Management 406: Formation and Implementation of Entrepreneurial Ventures at the Wharton School, as well as Engineering and Applied Science 445/545: Engineering Entrepreneurship at the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He also teaches business plan development and consults for the Wharton Small Business Development Center, and teaches in the Leadership in the Business World program at Wharton. In addition, he is also an Entrepreneurial Fellow at Penn’s Weiss Technology House and is an Executive in Residence for the Science Center. Lawrence is also an accomplished record producer, working with Grammy winner Phil Nicolo.

Gil Beyda

Managing Partner, Genacast Ventures

Gil Beyda is managing partner of Genacast Ventures, a seed-stage venture fund formed in partnership with Comcast Interactive Capital. Genacast invests up to $500,000 in new media, digital marketing, consumer Internet and web x.0 companies. 

Prior to Genacast, Gil was CTO of TACODA, the first and largest behavioral targeted, online ad network. TACODA was acquired by AOL in 2007. 

Gil helped pioneer Internet advertising in 1995 as founder and CTO of Real Media, one of the first online ad networks and ad server companies. Real Media was acquired by 24/7 Media in 2001. 

For ten years prior to Real Media, Gil was a highly sought-after software consultant in Asia, Europe and the U.S. 

Gil Beyda is managing partner of Genacast Ventures, a seed-stage venture fund formed in partnership with Comcast Interactive Capital. Genacast invests up to $500,000 in new media, digital marketing, consumer Internet and web x.0 companies. 

Prior to Genacast, Gil was CTO of TACODA, the first and largest behavioral targeted, online ad network. TACODA was acquired by AOL in 2007. 

Gil helped pioneer Internet advertising in 1995 as founder and CTO of Real Media, one of the first online ad networks and ad server companies. Real Media was acquired by 24/7 Media in 2001. 

For ten years prior to Real Media, Gil was a highly sought-after software consultant in Asia, Europe and the U.S.

Prasanna Krishnan

Associate and Kauffman Fellow, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Prasanna is an Associate and Kauffman Fellow at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Prior to joining DFJ, Prasanna worked as a Program Manager at Microsoft on WinFS - a new storage system for next generation Windows PCs.  She defined the product design for storage and search capabilities, managed cross-functional teams, and worked with leading media software and document management companies to persuade them to adopt WinFS.  Prasanna was selected into the Microsoft Select Fast-track Program as one of 15 employees who demonstrated potential to be future leaders at the company.  She also worked at McKinsey & Company in their Philadelphia office, at Internet Capital Group and at Novell Software Development Ltd in India.

Prasanna holds an MBA from the Wharton School where she graduated as a Palmer Scholar.  She has an MS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she was a Siebel Scholar, and received the C.W.Gear Outstanding Graduate Student award for research and service.  Prasanna holds a B.E. in Computer Science from BITS, Pilani, India where she received the University Fellowship awarded to the top 10 undergraduates each semester.  She was also awarded the BITS Alumni Association's "30 under 30" award.

Neill Occhiogrosso

Principal, Highland Capital Partners

Neill is a Principal at Highland in the Information and Communication Technologies group. He is focused on disruptive business models in IT -- software-as-a-service (SaaS), open source software, and low-cost telesales. Neill is actively involved in Highland's investments in Desktone, Ocarina Networks, Virtual Computer and XORP. 

Prior to joining Highland Capital Partners, Neill was a Business Development Manager at Sandbox Industries, a Chicago incubator, where he worked with the founders to develop innovative business concepts and bring new ventures to market. Previously, Neill held operating roles in a number of technology startups. Most recently he was at InnaPhase Corporation, where he led development of their Newton product line until the company’s acquisition by Thermo Electron Corporation.

Neill holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Duke University and anM.B.A. in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Karthik Hosanagar

Professor, Wharton School (Moderator)

Kartik Hosanagar is an assistant professor of Information and Operations Management at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. Professor Hosanagar´s research interests are in Internet commerce with a special emphasis on Internet media and Internet marketing. His work focuses on how consumers choose media and products on the Internet using information filters like search engines, recommender systems and comparison shopping engines and how firms influence the process using various forms of Internet advertising. As part of this stream of work on Internet media, he also studies how firms distribute media to consumers using Content Delivery Networks, P2P and other overlay infrastructure.

His dissertation research received the William Cooper award for best thesis in Management Science (2004) and the eBusiness Research Center (eBRC) doctoral award (2002). Professor Hosanagar has received the best paper award at the Consortium on Technology Policy and Management (2002) and has been nominated for the best paper award at the Workshop on Information Technology and Systems (2002). He is a recipient of the National Talent Search scholarship from the Government of India (1992), a doctoral fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University, a University scholarship at Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS, Pilani), India and was offered the Castanga fellowship at University of California, Berkeley. Professor Hosanagar has a Bachelors degree in Electronics and a Masters in Information Systems, both from Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS, Pilani), India and an MPhil in Management Science and a PhD in Management Science and Information Systems from the Heinz School of Policy at Carnegie Mellon University.

In his spare time, Prof. Hosanagar pursues entrepreneurial interests. He is a cofounder of Yodle Inc and serves on the advisory boards of several other startups.